Chris Hemsworth

"I had auditioned very early on [for Thor], and it didn’t go any further and then I went off to shoot a movie. Then I got a phone call saying to put down an audition tape. My mum was with me at the time, and she played Anthony Hopkins’ character and read his lines and held the camera and workshopped this in with me. It was a nice family group effort."-Chris Hemsworth

It’s been nearly two years since Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth made his Hollywood debut as Captain Kirk’s father in J.J. Abrams' massive summer tentpole Star Trek. But that film belonged to Chris Pine, who went on to become one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood. This summer, however, it was Hemsworth’s turn to make his name household. He suited up as the hammer-wielding God of Thunder himself, Thor, a character who will make him famous yet again in next summer's The Avengers.

MAGNETISM

Chris Hemsworth is just the latest in a long line of Australian heartthrobs to take the U.S. by storm. The Melbourne-born actor is the quintessential Aussie, oozing a raw masculinity and a gritty charm that’s a far cry from the polished pretty boys churned out by the Hollywood assembly line. It’s exactly these qualities that landed the strapping, well-built Hemsworth the lead role of Thor, a superhero who relies on punishing brute force over acrobatics. That leaves us wondering: Did Hemsworth land his stunning Spanish wife Elsa Pataky with punishing brute force or acrobatics? We’re guessing a little bit of both.

SUCCESS

Before being cast as Thor in what was one of last summer’s biggest blockbusters, Chris Hemsworth was already a major star in Australia, having spent three season’s on the ultra-popular soap Home and Away, for which he won aLogie Award for Most Popular New Male Talent. But the fame he experienced Down Under is nothing compared to what’s in store for Hemsworth, who will appear in the horror film A Cabin in The Woods and the remake of the American war film Red Dawn (both have been temporarily shelved due to financial problems at MGM) before reprising his role as Thor in the eagerly anticipated The Avengers, a Marvel mash-up that is set to be the biggest superhero film of all time.

Chris Hemsworth Biography

Chris Hemsworth was born on August 11, 1983 in Melbourne Australia, but moved to Phillip Island shortly after with his parents and his two brothers, Luke and Liam (who recently called off his engagement with Miley Cyrus). Hemsworth would go on to attend Heathmont Secondary College in Melbourne and worked on his aunt and uncle’s farm before embarking on an acting career. Among minor roles on various Australian television shows came his big break: the role of Kim Hyde on the long-running Aussie soap Home and Away, the same series that helped Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, and Isla Fisher launch their careers. On the soap, he met and dated costar Isabel Lucas, but after three years on the show, Hemsworth -- who had also appeared on Australia’s version of Dancing With the Stars -- decided it was time to take his career stateside.

Chris Hemsworth Begins His Ascent

Chris Hemsworth’s first Hollywood job was as George Samuel Kirk, Sr., Captain Kirk’s proud poppa in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. It was a minor role in a massive movie, but it was also a great introduction to blockbuster filmmaking, something Hemsworth would have even more experience with later in his career. But before the role that changed everything, Hemsworth appeared in the psychological thriller A Perfect Getaway and took on roles in The Cabin in the Woods and Red Dawn, two films that were slated for release this year but that are still in limbo thanks to the cash-strapped studio that produced them.Chris Hemsworth is Cast as Thor

Even if Red Dawn and The Cabin in the Woods never see the light of day, Chris Hemsworth’s future as a megastar seems firmly intact. While Thor dominated the box office last summer, Hemsworth will once again don the superhuman Viking’s armor as he shoots Joss Whedon’s long-awaited superhero love-fest, The Avengers, whose star-studded cast features Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, and Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, it was Whedon who initially called Thor’s director, Kenneth Branagh, to recommend Hemsworth -- who he had met on the set of The Cabin in the Woods -- for the role. Hemsworth reportedly beat out the likes of Josh Hartnett and Channing Tatum. As far as breakouts go, it doesn’t get much bigger than that.

Chris Hemsworth Is Voted People's Sexiest Man Alive

In November of 2014, Chris Hemsworth was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive." Other hunks featured in the issue were Idris Elba and Chris Pratt, but People said there was "no contest" when in came to naming Hemsworth sexiest man. The actor said it was "pretty funny" when he heard the news.